-Down to Earth West Bengal, along with Bangladesh, received two million on-ground LIGhtning bolts The region of West Bengal in India and Bangladesh is among the most vulnerable in South Asia to lethal LIGhtning strikes, according to a recent report. West Bengal received the highest number of LIGhtning strikes per square kilometer in 2020, followed by Jharkhand, according to South Asia LIGhtning Report ,2020 by Earth Networks, a global weather intelLIGence agency. The company’s...

-Press release by United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner GENEVA (16 July 2021): UN human rights experts* today called on India to halt evictions of some 100,000 people – including 20,000 children – that began this week in the midst of monsoon rains. Demolition of homes began on Wednesday, 14 July, in a village in Haryana State built on protected forest land, even though the forest was actually destroyed...

-Down to Earth The victims are living without shelter and are severely constrained for food and other necessities Hundreds of families displaced by floods that took place in June in northern Bihar, have been forced to take shelter on nearby roads. Large tracts of land are still submerged by flood waters and there is little chance of water receding in the coming days. The India Meteorological Department has forecast more rains this month due...

-PTI/ The Hindu Twenty-one people, including six children, were also injured in LIGhtning incidents across the State. Eighteen people, including seven children, were killed in separate incidents of LIGhtning in Rajasthan’s Jaipur, Kota, Jhalawar and Dholpur districts on July 11, police said. Twenty-one people, including six children, were also injured in LIGhtning incidents across the State, they said. In a major tragedy in Jaipur, 11 persons, mostly youth, were killed and eight others injured...

-The Hindu  Growth impulses remained fragile, manufacturing output tanked 9.5% After touching a six-month high in May, India’s retail inflation was virtually unchanged in June at about 6.3%, remaining out of the central bank’s comfort zone for a second month in a row. Economists expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to revisit its inflation estimate of 5.1% for 2021-22 and stressed that lack of fiscal policy action to cool prices could precipitate...